Robert Fisk’s World: Lessons in justice and fairness from a no-nonsense historian

But to Avi. He recalls arguing with the late Edward Said – and there is a titanic voice to be ever missed, irreplaceable is the only word – over the Oslo agreement. Here is what Avi writes: “In the years since 1993, I have often asked myself: who was right and who was wrong? When things were going well, when progress was being made, when Oslo II was signed, for example, I thought that I was right and that Edward was wrong.

For full article, visit http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-lessons-in-justice-and-fairness-from-a-nononsense-historian-1760726.html

Israeli troops fire teargas at Al Jazeera reporter

Israeli soldiers fired on Friday teargas at a reporter working for Al Jazeera English as she was covering the nonviolent weekly protest against the Annexation Wall in Bil’in village near Ramallah.

For full article, visit http://www.imemc.org/article/61589

Jacky Rowland was reporting Friday from the West Bank village of Bil’in, explaining to viewers about the separation fence and the weekly protests that take place there, when Israeli troops began firing tear gas at the protesters and then directly at her.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1112501.html

Hasan Abu Nimah: An impossible reconciliation

Palestinians in Gaza wearing masks of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh call for unity between the feuding groups. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

One major stumbling block has been hundreds of Hamas political detainees held in Palestinian Authority and Fatah-controlled prisons in the West Bank. (The Palestinian Authority routinely denied such arrests, although Abbas announced that 200 Hamas prisoners would be freed on the occasion of the start of Ramadan.) Hamas also demands that Fatah security forces supplied, trained and supervised by US General Keith Dayton halt their crackdown on resistance fighters from Hamas as part of the American-backed plan for crushing any form of resistance to Israeli occupation.

This really is the heart of the matter. Hamas is in effect asking its Fatah/Palestinian Authority (PA) opponent to abandon its primary role undertaken as part of its “peace strategy” and its commitments to the so-called “international community,” the Quartet roadmap, as well as the Dayton plan. Fatah and the PA apparatus it controls adheres to this US-sponsored anti-resistance strategy as the primary condition for the continuation of international financing for the PA.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10742.shtml

The pitfalls of Palestinian national consciousness

Fatah leaders, including some of those newly elected to the Fatah Central Committee, pray next to the tomb of the late Fatah leader and founder Yasser Arafat, 13 August 2009.

True, the conference was held on Palestinian soil, but, ironically, under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers. The failure of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fatah) to achieve any of its declared goals was symbolized in its holding the conference under occupation. This reflects not only the demise of Fatah — the faction that dominated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for decades — but the general demise of contemporary Palestinian nationalism.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10728.shtml

Seth Freedman: Israel Cries Wolf Over Blood Libel

On reading the original story, it is clear that the article’s content is journalism of the worst kind: based on the flimsiest of evidence, making tenuous connections on little more than pure conjecture and relying on dubious testimony in the absence of hard fact and proof. However, bad journalism does not automatically an antisemite make, especially when the allegations were directed at the Israeli army, rather than at Judaism and its practices. Had the article claimed that Jewish teaching encouraged the killing of gentile children and the use of their blood for ritual purposes – the classic definition of blood libel, and the origin of the phrase – it would be another matter, but in this case the accusations are clearly made against a subsection of Israeli society, not against Israelis per se, let alone the worldwide Jewish community.

For full article, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/24/israel-blood-libel-aftonbladet-organ-harvesting

Obama and Netanyahu differ in talks

Israel’s prime minister has refused to commit to an independent Palestinian state during talks with Barack Obama, the US president, at the White House.

Binyamin Netanyahu told Obama that he wanted the Palestinians to govern themselves, but steered clear of explicitly endorsing the two-state solution set out in the so-called “road map”.

For full article, visit http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/05/200951817522268394.html

Abe Hayeem: Boycott this Israeli settlement builder

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office must be commended for its decision to cancel renting premises for the UK embassy in Tel Aviv from the company Africa-Israel, owned by Israeli businessman and settlement builder Lev Leviev. This is an encouraging step that should now be backed by stronger sanctions against the building of the separation wall and the building of illegal settlements by Israel. Furthermore, the governments of Norway and Dubai should emulate the example set by the UK and sever their relationships with Leviev’s companies.

For full article, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/28/israel-boycott-leviev

International Law Seldom Newsworthy in Gaza War

As of January 13, only two network evening news stories (NBC Nightly News, 1/8/09, 1/11/09) had even mentioned international law—a mere 3 percent of the total stories that NBC, ABC and CBS’s newscasts had broadcast on the Israeli military offensive since it began.

For full article, visit http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3767

Mashal to British MPs: “If we find another way to end the occupation – we’ll use it”

During the videoconference Mashal stressed the necessity of pressuring Israel to put an end to its occupation of the West Bank and its siege on Gaza. He explained that “if we [Palestinians] find another way to end the occupation – we will use it,” but noted that all efforts to seek help from the international community had failed.

The Hamas leader stressed the party position that it will recognize Israel when it withdraws to the 1967 borders, and reiterated that any settlement between the sides will necessarily include such a proviso.

For full article, visit http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37315

PA officials scandalized at disclosure by Abbas’s son of vast personal fortune

Yasser Abbas

Yasser Abbas, the son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, revealed this week that he’s a self-made millionaire who started his own business shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

In an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Aswak.net economic magazine, Abbas’s son, who was named after former PA leader Yasser Arafat, also declared that “a majority of Palestinians,” including himself, “collaborate with Israel.”

For full article, visit http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710711339&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull